The Big Pudding Energy Field of Love Surrounding Her LoverOur episode begins with Captain Kirk, Mr. Spock, Dr. Nimoy and a Star Fleet Assistant Commissioner Hedford, a diplomat in charge of presenting a war, on an away craft. The diplomat has contracted a rare and lethal disease that the Enterprise can cure, if they could just get her to it. En route the shuttle is captured by a never before seen energy cloud in space. Looking remarkably like a mix between pudding and spirograph drawings, the energy cloud diverts the shuttle craft to a distant planet.
Episode Summary
On board the Enterprise, Scotty has been left in charge searching for the missing away team. He reasons, because of absence of wreckage, debris, or energy trail, the shuttle must have been taken away by something. Though there is little evidence for determining where the shuttle could have gone, Scotty is determined to find his crew.
On the planet, the crew are greeted by a 30-something year old man thrilled to see them, and excited by their shuttle craft. Though they are skeptical of his presence in such a far off locale, Kirk finally gives over to their need for assistance and follow the man to his abode. There they discover that the man they have met is Zephram Cochran, the discoverer of warp drive, and the man to make first contact with Vulcans a full 150 years before. How could he seem so young? He recognizes Spock as Vulcan immediately. Finally it is explained that it is the energy field, what Cochran calls "The Companion", that has made Cochran young again. Further, the away team has been brought to Cochran because he was lonely. Kirk and the others are horrified by the idea of being contained without the kind of challenge they are used to. They feel contained, hemmed in, held captive. Meanwhile, Hedford's illness has gotten worse. In only hours she will die. The companion will not save her. Kirk convinces Spock to prepare the shuttle's universal translator so that Kirk can attempt to communicate with the energy field.
Kirk makes contact with the companion. In doing so he realizes the energy field is a female pudding-spirograph form that is in love with Cochran. Hearing that he has been held in affection by an alien lifeform all these years, Cochran runs off in disgust. Inside, we hear Hedford begin to cry. She has been good at her job. But she has never been loved. How can she die with a life like that, she asks? Kirk, Spock, and McCoy are horrified by the contrast between Hedford's need for love, and Cochran's denial of it.
Kirk attempts again to communicate with the companion. He explains to the companion the realities of love, hoping that if the energy cloud loves him, she will him go. Instead, the companion combines with Hedford, who was about to die. Together, they discover the love both longed for. Though he resists at first, Cochran realizes he loves the new Companion-Hedford. She has the beauty of Hedford, with the wealth of sharing and beauty Cochran had shared with the companion for over 150 years.
We discover that in becoming human the companion will die, and that she cannot leave her planet, from which her life emanates. Cochran realizes he is in love with her, and will not leave the planet that had before seemed like a prison to him. Oh the power of the beautiful female form. It turns out it is all it takes for a man to give up the freedom of the entire universe. The immortality that he had previously celebrated thanks to the companion he can no longer have. In becoming human she has lost her powers. In having this pointed out to him by Spock, Cochran responds, "Men and women have been growing old together for thousands of years. I have a feeling it's one of the more pleasant things about being human--growing old together."
Ah the mighty power of heterosexist pre-determined love fests! Good ol' Star Trek. Way to stick to your heteronormative guns! Though this episode is ridiculously naive in its conception of pseudo progressive straight love (note: the writers are clearly trying to be open minded by having multi-alien love, they're still being totally conservative in their idea that two members of a relationship simply need to be male and female to fall in love), I appreciate getting to see Cochrane, and to visit that piece of Star Trek history.
As Kirk, McCoy, and Spock walk away, leaving diplomat Hedford behind morphed with the jello swirly energy field of love, Cochran calls after Kirk. "Don't tell them about me, Cochran. Don't tell them about me."
Episode Quotations
"I'm in command, Bones. That makes it my fault." --Kirk
"Maybe you're a soldier so often, you also forget that you're a diplomat. Why don't you try a cherub instead of a stick." --Bones to Kirk. Amen, Bones, Amen.
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